FOOTBALL

FOOTBALL; 'I Remember It All As If It Were Yesterday'

By IRA BERKOW

Published: December 2, 1994

The quarterback of the Erasmus Hall High School football team in Brooklyn, a 17-year-old named Adrian Bailey, came to watch a ceremony yesterday honoring a predecessor of his, an Erasmus quarterback who played 60 years before him.

"Had you ever heard of Sid Luckman before this?" Bailey was asked.

"No," he said. "But I was curious."

On a sunny but chilly afternoon, Bailey would learn about Luckman while among the audience at the small, renovated football field on McDonald Avenue where Erasmus plays its home games, the place where Sid Luckman played and Adrian Bailey played, the place that was dedicated to Luckman yesterday and named for him.

The differences in the worlds of Bailey and Luckman are vast. When Luckman went to Erasmus, one didn't have to go through a metal detector to enter the building on a school morning. The student population was mostly Jewish and Irish. Today it is primarily black.

But there are similarities. The Jews and Irish were of immigrant backgrounds, as are many of the Haitian, other Caribbean, Indian and Pakistani students today. "You feel a lot of school spirit," said Dr. Elaine Dawes, the acting principal, "as I'm sure was the case in Mr. Luckman's time."

And when the players ran onto the field for a game this year during a 3-4-1 season, they still ran out in the blue school colors, seeking to win one for "the Dutchmen," the nickname derived from their Dutch philosopher namesake.

Bailey, sitting in the stands and wearing a modest Rastafarian hair style with head band and a windbreaker, would learn how Luckman led Erasmus to the city championship as a junior in the mid-1930's; how he went on to become an all-American at Columbia University; how he went to the Chicago Bears in 1939 and won honors as the first great T-formation quarterback; how he guided the Bears to four National Football League titles in a seven-season span, and how he was later inducted into the college and pro football halls of fame.

In some ways, Bailey could identify with Luckman. After all, besides playing the same position, they are about the same height and weight, 5 feet 11 inches, 185 pounds.

"I think it's great that they're doing this," said Bailey, "to have all these people come out for it -- the students, the coaches, all those old people."

One of those old people was Luckman himself, who is 78. He sat in the first of two rows of wooden chairs along a sideline. He wore tinted glasses, an overcoat with a carnation and looked trim, if a little tired.

He said he had "been ill in the hospital for 16 days" and had battled a serious illness for 13 weeks, and while the doctors had suggested he not make this trip from his home in Chicago, he said that nothing could have prevented him from appearing for this honor.

"I'm gratified and thrilled," he said. "I feel wonderful."

One reason for the field's dedication, as Dawes said, was the hope of "galvanizing" students to know their local history "and reach for the stars."

The dedication was the idea of Dr. Ira Warheit, a New York dentist, who believes that not enough is made of the great fund of people who have become national and international successes from Brooklyn. Erasmus has produced such star-studded alumni as Barbra Streisand, Beverly Sills, Bobby Fischer, Eli Wallach, Al Davis, Billy Cunningham and Barbara McClintock, a Nobel Prize winner in medicine, as well as Bob Tisch, co-owner of the football Giants, who was on hand yesterday.

Marty Glickman, the former track star and sports announcer, played high school football for Madison High and twice played against Luckman's team for the city title, winning one game and losing another.

"He was the best all-round football player that New York City ever developed," Glickman said. In one game, Glickman intercepted a Luckman pass and ran it back for a 75-yard touchdown, racing past the last Erasmus player, the quarterback.

Luckman never forgot it. He recently called Glickman by phone and said, "This is the guy who chased you all over the field and couldn't catch you in 1934."

Allie Sherman, another Brooklyn native and former pro quarterback, as well as a former Giants head coach, recalled studying films of Luckman passing, the way he threw arcing balls to his wide receivers -- he set and still shares the N.F.L record of seven touchdown passes in one game -- how he could "brilliantly" learn 150 plays with numerous formations.

"And he was supposed to be able to see what everyone on the field was doing," said Sherman. "When I went behind the center for the snap, I could see only about two people."

"I remember it all as if it were yesterday, how I first came on the field as a freshman, in 1931," Luckman said now standing in front of the microphone. "I can hear the cheers of the crowd. I remember the field being rocky, and patchy grass like a vacant lot and a locker room like you wouldn't believe."

The field behind him now was a smooth green artificial turf. He was about to speak again when the F train rumbled past right alongside the field.

"I -- I never in my wildest imagination all those years ago thought this would ever happen to me," said Luckman, appearing genuinely touched, and looking around at old friends and numerous family members. "This is one of the most thrilling days in my life."

Adrian Bailey, like the others, applauded the old Erasmus quarterback. Bailey will be heading for Lock Haven (Pa.) University on a football scholarship. What about his future?

"I have my dreams," he said. "Like I'll bet Mr. Luckman did."

Photo: Sixty years and thousands of yards ago: Sid Luckman looks downfield at the Erasmus football field in Brooklyn, which was renamed in his honor. (Ruby Washington/The New York Times)